英文
A Changed Man III
At the chapel-of-ease attended by the troops there arose above the edge of the pulpit one Sunday an unknown face. This was the face of a new curate. He placed upon the desk, not the familiar sermon book, but merely a Bible. The person who tells these things was not present at that service, but he soon learnt that the young curate was nothing less than a great surprise to his congregation; a mixed one always, for though the Hussars occupied the body of the building, its nooks and corners were crammed with civilians, whom, up to the present, even the least uncharitable would have described as being attracted thither less by the services than by the soldiery.
Now there arose a second reason for squeezing into an already overcrowded church. The persuasive and gentle eloquence of Mr. Sainway operated like a charm upon those accustomed only to the higher and dryer styles of preaching, and for a time the other churches of the town were thinned of their sitters.
At this point in the nineteenth century the sermon was the sole reason for churchgoing amongst a vast body of religious people. The liturgy was a formal preliminary, which, like the Royal proclamation in a court of assize, had to be got through before the real interest began; and on reaching home the question was simply: Who preached, and how did he handle his subject? Even had an archbishop officiated in the service proper nobody would have cared much about what was said or sung. People who had formerly attended in the morning only began to go in the evening, and even to the special addresses in the afternoon.
One day when Captain Maumbry entered his wife's drawing-room, filled with hired furniture, she thought he was somebody else, for he had not come upstairs humming the most catching air afloat in musical circles or in his usual careless way.
“What's the matter, Jack?” she said without looking up from a note she was writing.
“Well—not much, that I know.”
“O, but there is,” she murmured as she wrote.
“Why—this cursed new lath in a sheet—I mean the new parson! He wants us to stop the band-playing on Sunday afternoons.”
Laura looked up aghast.
“Why, it is the one thing that enables the few rational beings hereabouts to keep alive from Saturday to Monday!”
“He says all the town flock to the music and don't come to the service, and that the pieces played are profane, or mundane, or inane, or something—not what ought to be played on Sunday. Of course 'tis Lautmann who settles those things.”
Lautmann was the bandmaster. The barrack-green on Sunday afternoons had, indeed, become the promenade of a great many townspeople cheerfully inclined, many even of those who attended in the morning at Mr. Sainway's service; and little boys who ought to have been listening to the curate's afternoon lecture were too often seen rolling upon the grass and making faces behind the more dignified listeners.
Laura heard no more about the matter, however, for two or three weeks, when suddenly remembering it she asked her husband if any further objections had been raised.
“O—Mr. Sainway. I forgot to tell you. I've made his acquaintance. He is not a bad sort of man.”
Laura asked if either Maumbry or some others of the officers did not give the presumptuous curate a good setting down for his interference.
“O well—we've forgotten that. He's a stunning preacher, they tell me.”
The acquaintance developed apparently, for the Captain said to her a little later on, “There's a good deal in Sainway's argument about having no band on Sunday afternoons. After all, it is close to his church. But he doesn't press his objections unduly.”
“I am surprised to hear you defend him!”
“It was only a passing thought of mine. We naturally don't wish to offend the inhabitants of the town if they don't like it.”
“But they do.”
The invalid in the oriel never clearly gathered the details of progress in this conflict of lay and clerical opinion; but so it was that, to the disappointment of musicians, the grief of out-walking lovers, and the regret of the junior population of the town and country round, the bandplaying on Sunday afternoons ceased in Casterbridge barrack-square.
By this time the Maumbrys had frequently listened to the preaching of the gentle if narrow-minded curate; for these light-natured, hit-or-miss, rackety people went to church like others for respectability's sake. None so Orthodox as your unmitigated worldling. A more remarkable event was the sight to the man in the window of Captain Maumbry and Mr. Sainway walking down the High Street in earnest conversation. On his mentioning this fact to a caller he was assured that it was a matter of common talk that they were always together.
The observer would soon have learnt this with his own eyes if he had not been told. They began to pass together nearly every day. Hitherto Mrs. Maumbry, in fashionable walking clothes, had usually been her husband's companion; but this was less frequent now. The close and singular friendship between the two men went on for nearly a year, when Mr. Sainway was presented to a living in a densely-populated town in the midland counties. He bade the Parishioners of his old place a reluctant farewell and departed, the touching sermon he preached on the occasion being published by the local printer. Everybody was sorry to lose him; and it was with genuine grief that his Casterbridge congregation learnt later on that soon after his induction to his benefice, during some bitter weather, he had fallen seriously ill of inflammation of the lungs, of which he eventually died.
We now get below the surface of things. Of all who had known the dead curate, none grieved for him like the man who on his first arrival had called him a “lath in a sheet.” Mrs. Maumbry had never greatly sympathized with the impressive parson; indeed, she had been secretly glad that he had gone away to better himself. He had considerably diminished the pleasures of a woman by whom the joys of earth and good company had been appreciated to the full. Sorry for her husband in his loss of a friend who had been none of hers, she was yet quite unprepared for the sequel.
“There is something that I have wanted to tell lately, dear,” he said one morning at breakfast with hesitation. “Have you guessed what it is?”
She had guessed nothing.
“That I think of retiring from the army.”
“What!”
“I have thought more and more of Sainway since his death, and of what he used to say to me so earnestly. And I feel certain I shall be right in obeying a call within me to give up this fighting trade and enter the Church.”
“What—be a parson?
“Yes.”
“But what should I do?”
“Be a parson's wife.”
“Never!” she affirmed.
“But how can you help it?”
“I'll run away rather!” she said vehemently.
“No, you mustn't,” Maumbry replied, in the tone he used when his mind was made up. “You'll get accustomed to the idea, for I am constrained to carry it out, though it is against my worldly interests. I am forced on by a Hand outside me to tread in the steps of Sainway.”
“Jack,” she asked, with calm pallor and round eyes; “do you mean to say seriously that you are arranging to be a curate instead of a soldier?”
“I might say a curate is a soldier—of the church militant; but I don't want to offend you with doctrine. I distinctly say, yes.”
Late one evening, a little time onward, he caught her sitting by the dim firelight in her room. She did not know he had entered; and he found her weeping.
“What are you crying about, poor dearest?” he said.
She started. “Because of what you have told me!”
The Captain grew very unhappy; but he was undeterred.
In due time the town learnt, to its intense surprise, that Captain Maumbry had retired from the—th Hussars and gone to Fountall Theological College to prepare for the ministry.
中文
浪子回头 三
一个星期天，在专为部队设的小教堂里，布道坛上出现了一张陌生的面孔。这是新来的副牧师。他放在布道坛桌上的不是大家熟悉的传道书，只有一本《圣经》而已。飘窗后的那位朋友当时并不在场，但他很快听说这位年轻的副牧师给了会众们一个大大的惊喜。来听布道的会众构成复杂，虽然骑兵们占据了会场正厅，但犄角旮旯里头则挤满了平民。不过哪怕是最厚道的人都说，这些人去那儿做礼拜是醉翁之意不在酒。
但现在他们又多了一个理由要挤进这个本就人满为患的教堂：听惯了高谈阔论、空洞无物的布道，圣威先生言辞典雅令人折服的布道真是一股清流，一时间镇上其他的教堂听众流失严重。
在十九世纪的这个时期，听布道是大部分信教群众去教堂的唯一原因。读福音祷告不过是预备式，就像巡回法庭开庭时宣读王室公告一样，都是正餐开始之前的开胃菜罢了。等到做完礼拜回家后，别人只会问：今天是谁在布道，讲得好不好？就算是大主教本人来主持，也没人会在意祷告了些什么，唱了些什么。而现在，原来只参加早课的教众也开始来参加晚课了，甚至有时连午课的特别演讲也来听。
一天，蒙布里上尉走进妻子的起居室时——屋里全是租用的家具——她还以为是别人进来了，因为他没有像往常一样哼着时下最流行的曲子，露出漫不经心的样子。
“杰克，出什么事了吗？”她没有抬头，一边问一边继续写信。
“嗯——没什么大事，就我所知。”
“哦，但肯定有什么事。”她一边写一边嘟囔。
“是啊——这个该死的新来的，穷得只能裹张床单，瘦得像条麻秆——我是说新来的牧师！他要我们把礼拜天下午的乐队表演停了。”
萝拉抬起头来，一脸惊骇。
“天哪！我们这些为数不多的有脑子的人就靠这个才熬过了礼拜一到礼拜六啊！”
“他说就是因为全镇的人都跑来听音乐所以不去做礼拜了，而且演奏的这些曲子要么堕落亵渎，要么无聊低俗，要么空洞无物——总之不该在礼拜天演奏。当然最后是由洛特曼来搞定这些事了。”
洛特曼是乐队的指挥。在礼拜天下午，军营绿地事实上已经成了大多数市民欣然前往的散步场所，甚至包括许多参加过圣威先生早课礼拜的教众。那些本应下午聆听副牧师讲道的小男孩，许多都在草地上滚来滚去，在更体面的听众背后扮鬼脸。
有两三个星期萝拉都没有再听到这件事。一天她突然想了起来，便问她丈夫还有没有再收到抗议。
“噢——是圣威先生。我忘了跟你说了，我已经跟他认识了。他人不坏。”
萝拉问蒙布里，他或者某位长官有没有把这位不知天高地厚、胆敢干涉他们的副牧师好好训斥一顿。
“呃——我们忘了这茬了。他们告诉我，他的布道真是令人拍案叫绝。”
两人的交情显然在不断加深，因为没过多久上尉又跟她说：“圣威反对礼拜天下午乐队奏乐其实是蛮有道理的。毕竟这离他的教堂太近了。不过他并没有太过分地给我们施压。”
“我很吃惊你居然会为他辩护！”
“我只是突然想到了。我们当然不想冒犯镇上的居民，如果他们不喜欢乐队奏乐的话。”
“可是他们都喜欢啊。”
飘窗后的那位病人一直不大清楚这世俗与教会观念交锋进展的具体细节；但其结果是礼拜天下午卡斯特桥军营广场上的乐队演奏从此中止了，这让乐队成员们大失所望，外头散步的情人们大感悲愤，镇上和附近村子里的孩子们大为遗憾。
到这时，蒙布里夫妇已经常常去听那位虽然有些狭隘但和善文雅的副牧师布道了。因为他们固然生性轻浮、漫不经心、放荡不羁，但为了体面也得去教堂做个样子，不过他们可不会像那些十足的俗人一样遵守教义。然而有一天飘窗后的朋友居然看到蒙布里上尉同圣威先生一边热切地交谈着一边沿高街往下走。他跟一位来访友人提起此事，对方告诉他这两人总是形影不离，大家都开始议论纷纷。
不过即便没人告诉他，这位观察者也会很快亲眼见到。那两人开始几乎每天都一起路过他楼下。在此之前，时常同蒙布里上尉结伴而行的是身着时髦外出服的蒙布里太太，但现在却不常见了。这两个男人亲密又奇特的友谊持续了近一年后，圣威先生被委任去中部郡一个人口稠密的小城领圣职了。他只得同教众们依依惜别，临走前的讲道刊发在本地报纸上，真是感人至深。失去他大家都很惋惜；后来卡斯特桥教众听说他刚上任不久，就因为一次恶劣天气导致肺部发炎不治身亡，大家都陷入了真切的悲痛中。
现在我们要谈到正题了。在所有认识已故副牧师的人里头，最伤心欲绝的莫过于那个他刚来时蔑称他为“穷得只能裹张床单，瘦得像条麻秆”的男人了。蒙布里太太对这位众人瞩目的牧师一直没多少好感。事实上，她听说他升迁去别处时心里颇为窃喜，因为他让这位热爱游戏人间、呼朋唤友、尽情享乐的女人少了许多乐趣。虽然她对丈夫失去了一位朋友表示遗憾，但这朋友反正也不是她的。可是，接下来发生的事却让她始料未及。
“亲爱的，最近有件事我一直想跟你说，”一天早饭时，他犹犹豫豫地说，“你猜过是什么吗？”
她从没猜过。
“我想退伍。”
“什么！”
“自从圣威死后，我就一直在想他，还有他从前对我说过的那些真挚的话。我内心里听到了神的召唤，让我放弃这打打杀杀的职业并投身教会，我要听从这召唤，我相信这决定是正确的。”
“什么——你要当牧师？”
“是的。”
“那我该做什么？”
“当牧师的太太。”
“我才不要！”她断然拒绝。
“但是你没得选呀！”
“我宁愿离家出走！”她言辞激烈地说。
“不，你绝对不可以。”蒙布里回答道，他通常在下定决心时才会用这种语气说话，“你会慢慢习惯的，因为天意驱使着我必须实现这个想法，就算它同我的世俗利益背道而驰。上帝的手在推动我去追随圣威的脚步。”
“杰克，”她脸色苍白、双眼圆睁，语气平静地问，“你是真的已经打算好了不当战士而去做牧师了吗？”
“我想说牧师也是战士——是教会这支军队的一员。当然我不想在这里说教，惹你不快。我明确地回答，是的。”
过了一段时间，一天深夜，他发现她坐在房间里微弱的炉火旁独自垂泪，没有注意到他进来了。
“我可怜的宝贝，你为什么要哭呢？”他问。
她吓了一跳，然后说：“因为你跟我说过的那些话！”
上尉很是心烦意乱，但并未因此改变主意。
不久后，镇上的人听说蒙布里上尉从第X骠骑兵团退伍，去了芳托神学院进修，要改行做牧师了，都不禁惊诧万分。
